“Where Do We Go From Here? Racism, Populism, Fascism and the Future of the Hard Right after the 2016 Election” – A Panel Discussion with Abby Scher, Sophie Bjork-James, Spencer Sunshine, and Chip Berlet

The white supremacist movement and self-described Alt-Right used the Trump presidential campaign to amplify its message and swell its ranks. Neo-Nazis, white nationalists, and militia leaders are celebrating the Trump presidential win as a victory of their own. A panel of experts on right-wing media and movements will discuss what we can expect of the hard right after the stunning Trump victory and how to challenge it.

Crimes against immigrants and Muslims spiked and online harassment of Jewish commentators and journalists was widespread in the midst of the racist rhetoric of the campaign. A September 2016 study by George Washington University’s Program on Extremism found that white nationalist use of social media now far exceeds the online presence of the Islamic State on virtually every social metric.

Join us for this important conversation.

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This event is free and open to the public. Please note that the school will require you to present a photo ID and sign in when entering the building.

The U.S. Radical Right in the Age of TrumpIn the United States, the campaign of Donald Trump has been a huge catalyst for the radical right. Patriot movement paramilitaries publicly brandish weapons to force the privatization of public lands and intimidate Muslims and refugees. Rightists are attacking Black Lives Matter protests with firearms, and violence has skyrocketed at counter-protests against fascists. White Nationalism is having its biggest growth in decades, and now includes new faces: intellectuals, hipsters, prison gangs, and Third Positionists. How will Trump’s presidency affect the furthest reaches of the far right? How will U.S. antifascists respond?

U.S. Left/Right Crossover MovementsIn the last decade, many new forms of left/right crossover movements have developed in the English-speaking world. This includes the spread of new forms of Third Positionism, Julius Evola’s influence, popular mobilizations against finance capital, conspiracy theories, doctrines of racial separatism on the Left and Right, the spread of anti-semitism, and the popularity of Sovereign Citizen pseudo-legal theories. In music, there has been a spread of Rock Against Communism, fascist neofolk, and black metal (NSBM) bands. What do these movments say about the Left and Right as distinct political forms, and how have traditional political actors responded to them?

I’ll be a doing a speaking tour in Germany leading up to the US elections, as well as a couple dates in London. There are two different talks I will be giving: one is on the U.S. radical right in the age of Trump, and the other is on U.S. Left/Right crossover movements (which in Germany is recognized as an issue for the Left, more than in the U.S.).Read More »

I started working on this report two months before the Malheur occupation – which threw quite a wrench in the thing. But now it’s finally finished. A joint project from Political Research Associates and the Rural Organizing Project, Up in Arms: A Guide to Oregon’s Patriot Movement explains the Patriot movement’s national structure and goals; shows its decades-old history in Oregon; looks in-depth at six Oregon counties where Patriot movement organizing is strongest today; explains why the rural Oregon economy is in bad shape; and offers concrete suggestions—including numerous examples from the last year—of how Oregonians have counter-organized against this movement.

Here’s a link list for news articles and related resources about Far Right antisemite Christopher Bollyn’s appearance at the (formerly) “progressive” space Brooklyn Commons, and owner Melissa Ennen’s welcoming of the booking.

Ennen’s new career as a host for antisemites drew denunciations from a state senator, two city councilers, many of the tenants in the building, Jewish groups, and local Palestine Solidarity groups (both Jewish and not). International coverage included Haaretz, the Jerusalem Post, and the International Business Times. Even the orthodox Jewish press chimed in.

Ennen has tripled down on the booking and, in the WBAI interview, said she would welcome David Duke to speak there.

A second protest at the end of September, during an open mic, resulted in the non-violent protestors being attacked with, among among things, a mic stand and had a hot cup of coffee thrown on them – caught on video.

New York City Counciler Steve Levin said “I am alarmed that Mr. Bollyn’s outrageous, abhorrent, and libelous theories on 9–11 are being presented as somehow ‘progressive’ and I hope those in attendance challenge Mr. Bollyn forcefully.” See Brooklyn Paper article.

CONDEMNATIONS FROM BROOKLYN COMMONS TENANTS & OTHERS WHO USE THE SPACE:

On air at the radio station which is based in the same space that Melissa Ennen owns, she says: “If the KKK or David Duke or anybody came here and wanted to rent the space, I’d say fine, rent the space, see who you can persuade.” (around 23:00)

Brooklyn for Peace, “BFP Statement re Controversy About the Brooklyn Commons,” http://brooklynpeace.org/?p=5876[undated] [note: Brooklyn for Peace sent a letter before the talk asking Melissa to cancel]

Recently Treyf, a radio show on Montreal’s KCUT, had me on the air to talk about the debacle regarding far right antisemite Christopher Bollyn’s talk at the supposedly (or shall we say formerly) “progressive” space the Brooklyn Commons.

—“It seems like being a Jew is a lot like being a wolf,” Christopher Bollyn

The booking of Christopher Bollyn at the Brooklyn Commons seems to be only the latest bid by the antisemitic wing of the 9/11 Truth and conspiracy movement to find legitimacy in lefty circles. Bollyn, Ken O’Keefe, and others have been speaking at progressive spaces, libraries, and even religious congregations in the recent past with little opposition.

This needs to change.

Bollyn is a former staffer at a leading racist media project who claims that a “Jewish/Zionist” cabal controls the United States. While this is boilerplate Far Right nonsense, he is speaking on Wednesday, September 7, 2016 at the Brooklyn Commons—a well-respected Left-wing movement space in central Brooklyn. While it takes some chutzpah to speak there, more worrisome has been the refusal of the space to cancel the event.

Bollyn worked for the Liberty Lobby from 2000 to 2006, which was run by Willis Carto, who for decades was one of the most important racists on the US Far Right. His media group included the Spotlight (now the American Free Press), a White nationalist newspaper (where Bollyn was a staffer), as well as the Barnes Review, the main periodical helping spread Holocaust Denial in the United States (where he was a contributing editor). Bollyn has also appeared on David Duke’s radio show, and has praised the racist paramilitary patrol, the Minutemen Project.

Bollyn made his name by promoting an openly antisemitic brand of 9/11 Truth conspiracies in which he makes boilerplate antisemitic claims. Many of these could be taken directly out of 1930s Nazi Party propaganda—that the US government is controlled by a cabal of Jews who force it to go to wars against its national interest. In case there is any lingering doubt, Bollyn is also happy to quote the Protocols of the Learned Elders of Zion, the forgery that is one of the main antisemitic texts that inspired the Nazis.

Thinking it was surely a mistake that such a person would be speaking at the Commons, I contacted them directly. Their booker, Melissa, said she was unaware of this person’s background and would get back to me. (As of press time — several days later — there has been no followup.) When asked to comment about Bollyn by other activists, the unidentified person running the Common’s twitter said, “I glanced at his site and nothing antisemitic jumped out at me.” But without even clicking on anything, the front page of Bollyn’s site is filled with lines like “9-11 is a massive Zionist Jewish crime,” and that NPR is run by a “cabal of Zionist Jews.” Bollyn’s website and other writings include such antisemitic gems like:

“Great nations, like the United States, France, and Germany, once had anti-Masonic and anti-Semitic political parties that acted to challenge the pernicious influence of secret Masonic and Jewish organizations. Today we no longer have such political parties to counter these secret networks and find ourselves ruled by B’nai B’rith and Jewish Freemasons.”

“The ‘false flag’ ter­ror­ism of 9–11 is a mon­strous Jewish-Zionist crime of our time. The true cul­prits of this heinous crime are clearly being pro­tected by a gang of like-minded Jew­ish Zion­ists in the high­est posi­tions of the U.S. government.”

“It seems like being a Jew is a lot like being a wolf.”

He openly cites the Protocols line that: “Not a single announcement will reach the public without our control.”

“I suspect that Arlen Specter is a high-level agent of the B’nai B’rith, the secret organization of Jewish Freemasons which I consider to be the real Elders of Zion.”

(Note: I won’t link to Far Right websites, but you can easily google up all this information.)

Anger about Bollyn’s appearance is growing in the absence of any action by the Brooklyn Commons staff. Many people have contacted the Commons to ask them to cancel the booking. (When DC bookstore Busboys and Poets was contacted about Bollyn’s talk there, they cancelled it within 24 hours.)

Members of several projects based at the Commons—the Brooklyn Institute for Social Research, Jacobin, the Marxist Education Project, The Indypendent, FUREE, Theater of the Oppressed Laboratory, WBAI, and the Right to the City Alliance—have issued an open letter saying: “We do not have any say in event booking and management at the Commons but agree that such politics should have no place in leftist spaces.”

Bollyn’s friends are also engaged in reactionary politics. For example, Nicholas DeVincenzo, the host of the New York event on Facebook, promotes David Duke videos, even tho he says he is skeptical of white separatism. Meanwhile, DeVincenzo’s friend, Rudy Dent, is slated to introduce Bollyn at the Commons. Dent, who is black, promotes the Protocols of the Elders of Zion on his facebook (which DeVincenzo approves of), as well as radical right-wing Sovereign Citizen theories.

This just goes to show how antisemitism is often the glue that holds unlikely political bedfellows together, and can create a bridge linking the Far Left and Radical Right.

The battle lines are drawn over demonizing narratives that promote oppression. People of any identity can promote narratives of antisemitism and white nationalism, and/or work with those who do. On one side are those who oppose promoting or working with them, and on the other are those who engage in demonization or who promote alliances with those who do. White, black, and other folks—including Jews—can be found on both sides of this line.

Similar to Bollyn, Ken O’Keefe has also been making the rounds of progressive circles. He began his career as a legitimate Palestine Solidarity activist but now propagates antisemitic conspiracy theories, including giving a talk praising Adolf Hitler.

I’m not sure what’s in the air right now, but whatever it is has given the antisemitic conspiracy theorists a push to try and find legitimacy for their views among the Left. Perhaps it’s the shot in the arm that Trump is giving to all forms of racism and bigotry—but nonetheless, it is clear that the response from the Left is severely lacking in regard to identifying and confronting antisemitism. There needs to be more education about antisemitic narratives and tropes so that people can recognize and reject them. And there should be an understanding about how antisemitism allows for cross-recruitment from, and fusion with, racists and fascists—as we are seeing with Bollyn’s attempts to woo progressives at the Commons.